It seems Steven Spielberg is determined that every role in his upcoming Abraham Lincoln biopic should be filled by a recognisable face. Now British actor Jared Harris, whose profile is about the jump much higher due to playing Moriarty in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, has joined the cast of Lincoln.

Variety reports Harris will play Ulysses S. Grant, the Union general in the Civil War who later became the 18th President of the United States. Daniel Day-Lewis is set to portray Abraham Lincoln in this biopic, which focuses on the final few year on the President’s life, through to his assassination.

Steven Spielberg’s biopic of Lincoln already has an incredibly impressive cast, and now it’s added another talented name to the ranks, British actor David Oyelowo. He joins Daniel Day Lewis, Sally Field, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tommy Lee Jones, James Spader, Lee Pace, David Strathairn, Jackie Early Haley and loads more illustrious names.

However all those people previously cast were noticeably white, and seeing as the film will focus on the last few years of Abraham Lincoln’s life, when he was engaged in an enormous civil war largely over the issue of ending slavery, you’d think they might find some space for some black faces.

Now Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes and The Help star Oyelowo has come onboard, according to Deadline. However it doesn’t sound like he’s going to have a particularly big role, as he’ll be playing cavalryman (we can already see the scene of Lincoln being inspired to carry on the fight by Oyelowo’s black cavalryman, going off to war to help his enslaved brothers).

Oyelowo is already currently filming the Tom Cruise flick One Shot, so he’s pretty busy at the moment, but has managed to slot in Spielberg’s film, shooting both roles concurrently. Lincoln will be in cinemas at the end of 2012.